Kapparot, an atonement ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews in conjunction with Yom Kippur, involves “swinging either a live chicken or a bundle of coins over one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken or coins. The chicken is then slaughtered.“ Kapporot is performed with chickens, in large numbers, right here in New York city, particularly in certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
There are activists working to get all Kapparot (also spelled Kaporos, Kaparos, Kaparot, etc.) practitioners to switch to coins, and they need your help! From The Alliance to End Chickens as Kapporot:
Please join our 4th annual street protest in Brooklyn, NY against the cruel and needless use of chickens in Kaporos rituals. This year we’re renting a “moving lit billboard” – a van with huge images illuminated on the sides and the back.
An activist Hasidic Rabbi has generously provided us with images, including one of himself tenderly holding a rooster, an audio file to BROADCAST FROM THE VAN URGING PRACTITIONERS TO USE MONEY, NOT CHICKENS, and translations of our messages into Hebrew along with English.
We know it is difficult to attend a demo where animals are suffering and dying in front of us, but as hard as it is for us, it is infinitely harder for the chickens, and we must be there for them and show that we care.
Please read A Wing and A Prayer for more information about the Kaporos (Kapparot) ritual. Please join us in Brooklyn to let the chickens know we’re there for them.
They’ve also produced this video featuring Bresov Hasidic rabbi Yonassan Gershom:
I know this can be a difficult issue for “outsiders” to get involved in. While the systemized abuse of chickens horrifying and immoral, it’s always delicate business criticizing other people’s religious beliefs and practices. But joining the existing efforts of the Alliance is something we can all do.
I’ll leave you with some quotes from chicken-abusing Kapparot practitioners:
NPR ”Weekend Edition”: Hecht says waving the chicken isn’t the point of this ritual. ”The main part of the service,” he says, “is handing the chicken to the slaughterer and watching the chicken being slaughtered. Because that is where you have an emotional moment, where you say, ‘Oops, you know what? That could have been me.’
NycFaith’s Blog: “Kaparot is absolutely the funniest custom we have, hands down,” said Rabbi Alevsky. “There’s plenty of giggling and laughing going around, and there’s a lot of shrieking, ‘I don’t want to touch it!’ ‘Get it away from me!’” He pauses, before adding, “And the chicken often poops on people. It chooses its targets very carefully.”
(As an aside, I also feel a dilemma regarding the “solution”; I mean, I don’t think swinging a bag of coins over your head does you any good either. I’m not even sure I believe that symbolic atonement is a positive thing at all, as opposed to specifically addressing the damage caused by bad things we’ve done. Of course I still support the Alliance’s mission, but especially if you are someone who–unlike me–believes in symbolic atonement and not abusing chickens, please join The Alliance in their efforts this year. I can only show up for the chickens; you can show up for the chickens and the spiritual mission.)
And speaking of kosher, SuperVegan reader Catres let us know about Sacred Chow’s upcoming Rosh Hashanah dinner, which will be held on Friday, September 14. It’s a prix-fix communal table deal which includes vegan challah, and pitchers of kosher vegan wine, cocktails, and beer.
The most complete study to date uses fairly conservative metrics and measures the deaths of American kittens (any gender, up to one year old) agaist the masturbation habits of American human males. Doing the math, it’s determined that there are well over 5000 acts of masturbation for each kitten death:
“The average American man can masturbate regularly for 22.5 years before he is responsible for the death of a single kitten. Indeed, with a life expectancy of less than 75 years, the average man will be responsible for only two or three kitten deaths in a lifetime of vigorous masturbation.”
So have fun at your Masturbate-a-thons, but do spare a thought for the kittens. (All these links are work-safe, believe it or not.)
Buddha don’t like killing, no matter what the reason’s for.
Well, for a couple days anyway. In honor of Vesak (Buddha’s birthday), the government of Sri Lanka decreed that no animals could be slaughtered, and no meat could be served. The extra-big deal this year was that meat was banned in tourist hotels, not just locals’ shops and restaurants.
Here’s some pictures of the festivities, none of which feature the crazy-awesome vegan food that I’m sure was in abundance. But I’ll take that as an excuse to trot out this years-old New York Times article about Sri Lankan food that still makes my mouth water.
For many, Easter Sunday, already an exceptionally eggy holiday, is a celebration of meat as well, as it marks the end of Lent, during which many Catholics abstain from eating meat. But Slovenian President Dr. Janez Drnovšek doesn’t think such celebration is appropriate. He explained in an Easter address: “Do really so many animals have to die when we celebrate higher consciousness and try to develop spiritually? The answer is clear: of course not.” Drnovšek has been vegan since 2005, and is an outspoken critic of animal testing and the E.U.’s livestock farming subsidies. He’s also a Christian, and never balks at combining religion and animal rights. As he said in an interview in 2005, “Jesus would be turning in his grave if he knew that mass slaughter of animals is carried out every year in his name.” Now that’s something to celebrate with chocolate eggs.
